The Woman In Limbo
by Ares' Warrior Babe
Summary: He always wondered how death would be; not necessarily how he'd die, but what would come after. Post Valkyrie. Possible Dreamworld spoilers?


**A/N: First attempt at _Castle._ Be gentle!**

**The idea of this came to me from the promo for Dreamland, which I'm very excited for. I'm hoping to make this a two-shot story.**

* * *

It hurt to breathe. Every inhalation felt like a knife was cutting into his lungs, allowing frigid water to fill them; it was almost as if he were drowning from the inside. He tried desperately to keep the ragged sounds to himself, but there wasn't much space between the passenger seat and the driver's where Beckett was, her eyes torn between staring at the road and looking to him every few seconds. "Stay with me, Castle." The demand made in her detective voice, but he could still hear the faint tremble in the sound, a plea intertwining itself with the words that fell from her lips. Rick wanted nothing more than to do as she said, to stay with her forever, but it was getting harder for him to concentrate on taking in breaths, on listening to her voice as she spoke, trying to keep him conscious. "Castle!" He heard the panic in her voice as his head jerked up.

"I'm still here," he rasped out. Damn, did his body ache.

"We're almost there, okay? The hospital is just a few more blocks away." Castle glanced at her quickly, seeing the sheen of tears that lingered in her eyes, threatening to fall.

"Kate," he spoke slowly, the effort of it nearly stealing his breath. "We don't have the antidote." He took another breath. "What do you think the hospital is going to do?"

"I don't know!" She cried out in frustration. Beckett looked to him, making sure to catch his eyes. "But I'm not going to let you die! Okay? You _can not_ die!"

Castle nodded, his head feeling too heavy for his body. His mind conjured up an image of a bobble head doll and a small grin graced his features before a coughing spell wracked his body. He covered his mouth with his hand, wishing he could stifle the sound, knowing that every cough frazzled Beckett's already rattled nerves. After the spasm was over he pulled his hand back, noting the specks of blood coating his palm. Castle was grateful for the hospital sign he saw as they drove by. '_Thank god,'_ he thought to himself as his eyelids began to flutter shut. "Kate," he whispered before allowing the darkness to envelop him.

"Castle!" Kate quickly parked the car outside of the emergency room entrance and laid her fingers on his neck, searching for a pulse. "Please be there, please be there," she spoke quietly to herself. "Oh, thank god!" She unbuckled her seatbelt and motioned to the man in scrubs standing by the door. "I need some help over here!" The man quickly ran over to her car and opened the passenger door.

"What happened?" The man in blue scrubs asked as his fingers replaced Kate's on Castle's neck.

She shook her head slightly, trying to think of a way to tell the doctor that her fiancee had been poisoned by a toxin that was classified by the military and had no known antidote. "I don't know," she began. "He wasn't feeling well and he started to cough and then he just passed out." Kate's eyes never left Castle's unmoving form.

The man tapped a button on his pager before returning his eyes to the patient. "How long has he been unconscious?"

"He just lost consciousness as we pulled up here." Kate could hear the footsteps of more people arriving. She glanced up briefly, seeing three women wearing matching scrubs come running out of the building. A gurney was brought out with them. She was terrified as she watched the jumbled mass of limbs maneuver Castle out of his seat and onto the gurney, all while staying in synch with one another, never getting in the other's way. Dimly, she heard one of them ask her his name. "Castle," she choked out. "His name is Rick Castle. He's my fiance."

Kate ran alongside them as they rushed into the emergency room. She watched helplessly as Castle was hooked up to monitors, IVs and oxygen. A nurse was shining a light in his eyes while another hung a bag of clear fluid from the metal pole by the bed. It shook her to her core to see Castle lying in a hospital bed, completely unresponsive. If he died, it would be her fault. '_I never should have accepted this job.'_ she thought. '_Castle could die and it's my fault. I failed him.'_ The beeping from one of the monitors pulled her away from her thoughts and her eyes moved from the readings back to Castle. "No," Kate whispered out as she watched a steady line pulse through the heart monitor. "No, Castle, don't do this! Please don't do this!" Her body propelled forward to his side as nurses moved around him. "You can't leave me, Rick! Please, don't leave me" Tears began falling down her face as she grabbed his hand, a part of her hoping that her touch would make him wake up and be okay. She vaguely heard one of the nurses yell 'clear' before another woman was pulling her away from his body.

"You can't be here right now," the woman said to her. She made sure Kate was at a safe distance away from Castle before returning to the other nurses.

Kate stood frozen, her eyes transfixed on Castle as his body convulsed with a pulse of electricity. "Don't leave me," she whispered. "Please, stay…"

* * *

He recognized the park he was in; The swings were a few feet in front of him. "Beckett?" He called out to the woman sitting on the swings. Castle walked closer to her before sitting down on the swing beside her.

"Yes," the woman replied. "But I'm afraid I'm not the Beckett you were expecting." There was a spark of mischief in her hazel eyes as she spoke.

"Johanna," Castle breathed out as the elder Beckett nodded. "Wait, does this mean that I'm...am I...did I...?"

She smiled at him. "In a way, yes. This is a limbo of sorts."

"Limbo?" Again, Johanna nodded. "So, it's like a waiting room for the dead?"

Johanna laughed. "You can look at it that way. Although everybody's limbo is different. This place holds a special place in your heart; it has meaning." Castle nodded in affirmation. "You make her happy," she stated. "Katie, you make her so incredibly happy."

"I try," he responded in a serious tone.

Johanna grabbed Rick's hand, holding it tightly in her own. "I'm so happy you're in her life. You brought light back into her eyes. She's finally living her life again."

"She was always living,"

Mrs. Beckett shook her head. "No, she was existing. Once you came into her life, she blossomed again. You challenged her and pushed her when she needed to be pushed. And you've saved her. Not just from murderers, but from herself. If you hadn't come along, I'm afraid I would've been seeing Katie sooner than I would have liked to." Johanna took a breath. "Thank you for loving her and for not giving up on her."

"I would never give up on her or stop loving her. She's everything to me." There was a pause between them. "Will she be okay?" Castle finally asked.

Johanna furrowed her brows. "What do you mean?"

"If I'm dead," he ignored the tremor that shot through his body at the word. "If I'm dead, will she be okay? I don't want her blaming herself for this. It wasn't her fault. It was...me and my stupidity."

She squeezed his hand. "Rick, you were not stupid for wanting to help Katie solve her case. You're so used to doing it; it's second nature for you to help her. This was not your fault nor was it Katie's." A small smile tugged on the corner of her lips. "Besides, who said you were staying dead?"

"I'm not? But you said I was dead! When you're dead, you're dead!"

"Rick, calm down. Yes, you may be dead for the moment, but it doesn't have to stay that way. You're in a hospital with doctors who are doing everything they can to save you."

"But the poison," he began. "We don't have the antidote."

Her smile grew. "Don't you believe in miracles, Rick?"

"Only if I write them," he countered.

Johanna rose to her feet, pulling Castle along with her. "Then write a miracle for you and Katie. Fight this and go back to her."

"How?"

"Just think of her."

Castle nodded before hugging Johanna tightly. "Thank you," he whispered in her ear.

"Thank _you_," she reiterated. He smiled at her as he pulled back. "Oh, and Rick," Johanna waited until his attention was focused on her. "Tell Katie I'm proud of the person she became and that I love her." A tear fell from her eye as he hugged her once more.

"I will," he promised.

* * *

His body felt heavy as he regained consciousness. A groan fell from his lips as sunlight filtered in through his eyelids. Castle could hear feet shuffling on floor as somebody moved towards his bed. Struggling, he opened his eyes as he felt a hand slip into his. "Hey," he whispered, his voice hoarse from disuse. Kate tried to smile for him, but failed as she murmured the greeting back. Castle squeezed her hand, gently pulling her closer to him. She willingly sat next to him on the bed. "I'm okay, Kate," his voice was soft, surrounding her in warmth and familiarity as she nodded, her eyes avoiding his gaze. "Kate, look at me."

Silence stretched between them as she slowly lifted her eyes to his. The tears were still there; they'd never left. She had spent the past thirty six hours sitting at his bedside, hoping, _praying_ that he would wake up, that he would be okay. That he would still be her Castle. "You died, Castle." She swallowed the lump in her throat. "You were legally dead for three minutes. I thought I lost you for good."

He reached up to brush away her tears before pulling her to lay beside him. His arms held her as tightly as he could while she clung to him, her face buried in his chest. "But you didn't," Castle whispered while kissing the top of her head. "I found my way back to you. It's going to take a lot more than some deadly toxin with no antidote to keep us apart." A small laugh escaped her lips and he relished in the sound.

His fingers played with the ends of her hair as she lay with him. His body still ached from the poison, but he wouldn't have her anywhere but in his arms with him. "Promise to stay with me?" Kate asked a while later.

Castle could hear the exhaustion in her voice as she spoke.

"Always." He felt her smile against his chest before letting out a deep breath. Castle waited a few moments until he knew she was asleep. "Always," he reiterated softly.


End file.
